Devices for launching weapons attached to a wire for conducting electricity to the impart target are well know. An early version is the “Electric Whaling Apparatus” as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,843 wherein a harpoon is electrically connected to an electric cable which, when the harpoon is thrown, unwinds from a coil stowed next to the harpoon thrower or cannon. The deficiencies of the device are its substantial girth, which makes it impossible to apply this device to launching electric wire from a handheld remote weapon to strike various targets, particularly in modern handheld remote electroshock devices such as the “Air Taser” made by Stinger Systems.
Also known is a device as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,867 that contains double cartridges for launching electric wire to impact various remote targets. Therein, the cartridge contains a common housing, within which are two barrels with the launched projectiles, which represent oblong cylindrical shafts that are fitted at the ends with barbed needles, similar to those used in fishing. The projectiles are ejected from the barrels using a pyrotechnic charge triggered upon firing by the high voltage applied in the DEShO to hit the target. In the cartridge's special pockets are two sets of electric wire that are drawn out of the housing by the projectiles upon firing. When the projectiles hit the target, they attach to it with the barbed needles, and the high-voltage shock is transmitted to the target along the two wires extending from the cartridge.
Also known is the “Weapon for Immobilization and Capture” as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,463 issued Apr. 9, 1974 which discloses, as one embodiment of this device, a device with a double wire-launching cartridge for hitting remote targets. One variant of the double cartridge contains a common housing, within which are four barrels with obturators (wads) and launch projectiles, comprising multi-spike balls connected to an electric wire situated packed on mandrels that are tapered to facilitate unwinding when the device is fired. A propellant pyrotechnic charge is ignited by an electrical current and, upon ignition, simultaneously launches the spherical projectiles, which are accelerated within the four barrels by the obturators (wads). At this, the spherical projectiles fly out of the cartridge barrels, pulling out the electric wires that are wound around the tapered mandrels and unwinding them from those mandrels. In the flight process, the electric wires are unwound from the tapered mandrels until the spherical projectiles hit and attach to the target with their multi-spike “burr-like” head portion.
Currently, rather than the multi-spike “burr-like” projectiles, all types of remote electroshock weapon cartridges use oblong projectiles with a needle that is the most effective in meeting the criterion of target-gripping along with maximum ease of manufacture. In essence, the cartridge type described above comprises a dual unitary cartridge containing a common housing and a launch power source, a propellant or pyrotechnic charge, a means of triggering the energy source such as an electrical igniter, two or more barrels, two or more projectiles for drawing the electric wire out of the cartridge housing and attaching the electric wire to the target, and two or more compact sites for locating the orderly packed electric wire so it is correctly delivered to the target upon firing, with no chance of it becoming tangled or severed while being unwound at a speed of no less than 30 m/second). However, compared to the unitary cartridge for a firearm, which combines the primer (percussive cap), the energy source for launching the projectile (powder), and the projectile itself (e.g., a bullet) within a single housing (the casing), the cartridge in the design described here differs substantially. The housing of the cartridge type described here also contains (combines) both the primer, the pyrotechnical energy source, and the projectile(s), as well as the electrical wire assembly necessary for this type of cartridge, but they are situated separately from one another, thus occupying substantially more space than that of the unitary firearm cartridge, in which all the necessary firing components are placed in a common cartridge chamber (the casing). The separate placement of the necessary firing components, besides increasing the cartridge's volume (i.e., its external dimensions), automatically increases the cartridge's overall weight as well, since the divided placement of the firing elements necessitates increasing the amount of material used to manufacture the housing, with separate sites in which to place the firing components, which means also increasing the weight of the housing material.
The need to combine at least two projectiles and at least two mutually isolated sets of electric wire within the housing of a single cartridge is dictated by the impossibility of effectively transmitting electrical energy to a target other than by a two-line mode of transmitting electrical energy, using two wires that are mutually isolated by an air gap or insulation. In the cartridge type described here, one can also use two pyrotechnical energy sources to launch the two projectiles, operating in separate barrels. This does not change the design principle. A common pyrotechnical energy source is used merely to decrease the dimensions and price of the product.
The need to have an air gap of at least 30 to 40 mm. between the barrels of the double cartridge, to prevent electrical disruption through the air between the two electric wires during firing, increases the cartridge's dimensions and the weight of the housing material still more. A comparison of the relative energy performance of a firearm cartridge (for the sake of consistency, using the least possible muzzle energy) and the type of cartridge described here, by volume or by weight (J/cm3; j/g), shows that a firearm cartridge with minimum muzzle energy, such as a “Short target” 5.6 mm. rimfire cartridge, has a relative performance of about 75 J/cm3 or 14 J/g per firing. The best cartridge models with a pyrotechnical energy source for the type of launch described here have a relative performance of no more than 0.4 J/cm3 or 0.26 J/g per twin firing. This takes into account the fact that both a firearm cartridge, designed not for reaching targets with a kinetic effect but only to penetrate a paper target, and the DEShO cartridges perform the same task above all else—that is, to deliver the projectile to its target. Even with the projectile's negligible muzzle energy per shot from one cartridge barrel (no more than 4 J), or 8 J for a twin firing, the relative energy performance that the type of cartridges described here need to pull the electric wire from the cartridge unit and fly to the target at a speed of about 30 to 40 m/sec, defers by an order of magnitude to the energy performance of unitary cartridges for firearms designed for marking openings in a paper target.
In order to accelerate the projectile that is being launched to the target and drawing the electric wire out of the housing in which it is stowed, a barrel is used, consisting of a cylindrical chamber in which the obturator element (wad) that pushes the projectile is accelerated. Although in this case the “barrel” assembly comprises a part of the weapon, not the cartridge, the cartridge barrels, which are situated in a housing shared by the projectile and the charge, can be described as being like the elongated case necks of contemporary domestically manufactured cartridges such as the SP-4 “Val” or the 18×45 and 18×70 cartridges for self-defense devices such as the PB-4 “Osa”. Such cartridges, which, being proper cartridges, simultaneously fulfill the function of barrel in a weapon for which barrels in their pure form (i.e., mounted on the weapon itself) are for whatever reasons not desirable. In a remote electroshock weapon, a barrel is in fact undesirable due to the insignificant muzzle energy required, the modest requirements as to fire dispersion, and the high demands as to the weapon's compactness due to the placement within it—besides the launching apparatus—of an electrical device producing electrical impulses that hit the target. Thus the concept of “cartridge of a remote electroshock weapon” falls under the concept of the “dual cartridge” or “dual cartridge containing barrel within it”, in which the individual firing elements such as the “primer”, “propellant charge”, “projectile”, and the key supplemental element needed for the projectile in a remote electroshock weapon—the “packed electric wire”—are all located within the same housing, but the assembly is extremely inefficient compared to the unitary cartridge of a firearm (including a cartridge with an elongated casing comprising the barrel as well), where all the necessary firing components are located within a single housing.
Compared to the unitary cartridge of a firearm, which integrates the primer (the percussive cap), the energy source for launching the projectile (powder), and the projectile itself (e.g., a bullet) within a single housing (the casing), the cartridge in the design described here has a substantial difference. The housing of the cartridge type described here also contains (combines) both the energy source for launching (a pyrotechnical or propellant charge), and the projectile(s), as well as the electrical wire assembly necessary for this type of cartridge, but they are situated separately from one another, thus occupying substantially more space than that of the unitary firearm cartridge, in which all the necessary firing components are placed in a common cartridge chamber (the casing). The separate placement of the necessary firing components, besides increasing the cartridge's volume (i.e., its external dimensions), automatically increases the cartridge's overall weight as well, since the divided placement of the firing elements necessitates an increase the amount of material used to manufacture the housing, with separate sites for situating the firing components, which means increasing the weight of the housing material as well.
The disadvantages of this design are as follows:
1. The placement of the electric wire on tapered mandrels in special compartments (chambers) of the cartridge, divided from the barrels, due to which it is impossible to minimize the cartridge dimensions beyond a certain magnitude determined by the length of the unwound wire, the dimensions of the mandrels and the chambers in which they are located, and the distances needed to prevent a disruptive discharge [through] the air gaps between the lead-in electrodes.
2. The se parate placement of the projectile, a component of the electric wire essential to firing, the launch-producing pyrotechnic charge and the conventional-type barrel precludes any reduction in the overall dimensions of the firing system.
3. The impossibility of creating a multi-firing weapon (over two shots in a single DEShO) of the type described here, that could be held in one hand (like a pistol or revolver) using dual cartridges, due to their large dimensions.